Crazy Little Thing Called The After Party

It's really incredible going through our wedding and remember all the little things that made our wedding truly amazing. All the beautiful people who helped make our day special. My husband had his three brothers, Peter, Brad and Josh as his groomsmen and I had my sisters Gemma and Emmily and my friend Annaliese as my bridesmaids. After our ceremony we headed off to North Pine Country markets for our wedding photos. A few weeks before our wedding my husband and I went to the markets for a date and were in awe of the incredible fig trees, we spent our date searching for places to have our wedding photos taken and even took a little moment to dance together. We may have looked silly but I will never forget that moment! 

My girls were truly amazing! From carrying my train for me, making sure I was fed and making me laugh when I was just getting too tired! 

My husbands brothers (My new brother in laws!) we really awesome on the day, and really good sports when I wanted a million photos and a million smiles to match! 

I hope I get to walk holding my husbands hand for the rest of my life. He is truly the best partner anyone could ask for. 

We decided to reenact our previous date dance. And again we felt so silly but it was a beautiful moment! 

Crazy Little Thing Called Marriage

Andrew and I were married on the 19th June 2011 in what I can only describe as the best day of my life.
I am a big stress freak and the days leading up until our wedding I stressed over every little detail of our wedding. I went to the florist daily, sent lengthy emails to the photographer, I even emailed the cake decorator about my nightmare about having a miniature sized cake and just wanted to make sure she knew I wanted a life size cake! 

On the day of our wedding I was so nervous and so excited. At every moment of the day I was either giggling or crying. The night before our wedding I stayed at my mums house and had a "slumber party" with my youngest sister. We stayed up and watched Doctor who until the wee hours of the morning and just chatted about life with the odd "ohmygoodness! Your getting married tomorrow" Oh and we nearly consumed and entire tin of milo that night! 

In the morning the hairdresser, a good friend of my mums arrived and started doing our hair. Not long after the make up artist arrived with a hilarious story of how her car broke down, just down the road because she was early so she waited down the road with her lights on (something I would do!!) It was too funny! My Dad saved the day by charger her battery while we got all pretty! :)
Lillia my niece (1 1/2) was incredibly amusing and kept as all entertained! I believe she only posed for one photo with the hair clip in her hair and then swiftly ripped it out but she was incredibly cute! 

In what felt like minutes (in reality hours of getting ready!) the limo driver, Murray arrived to take us to the church! The hysterical crying almost started but Murray swiftly stepped in and kept my emotions in check by playing the "going to the chapel" song. I will never forget sitting in the back of the limo for those last few moments alone as an unmarried woman. Before you knew it the limo was filled with my parents, my bridesmaids (two of my sisters and my friend annaliese) and my brother and our exchange student michiru! And off we went to meet everyone at the church! 

By the time we arrived at the church I was well and truly panicking! My sister and Dad were trying to calm me down. The last few things I was told before my walk down the aisle "Breathe and walk slowly." Neither of which I did :)

I bolted down the aisle, I didn't breathe the entire time, I couldn't hear a thing. I have no idea who was there and for those for seconds all I could think about was getting up there with my husband! We had a friend and his string quartet play "All I want is you"by U2. Although I don't remember it being played, after watching our wedding video it was definitely played and it was amazing :)

Now for the next half hour whilst my grandfather married us I don't remember much. I remember squeezing my husbands hand, refusing to look at him because I knew that if I looked him in the eye I would cry. I remember listening to my husband say his vows, I remember saying my vows. I remember turning around to hear my youngest brother read out a bible verse and catching a glimpse of my gorgeous bridesmaids standing there behind me. I remember catching quick glances at my parents watching us get married. I remember singing a hymn and wishing I could tell my grandpa his microphone was on so his singing was incredibly loud in comparison to everyone else. I remember trying to hold back giggles and squeezing my husbands hand when he started to chuckle. I remember our first kiss as husband and wife and wishing that we could just jump in the limo and ride off into the sunset so we could just chat enjoy each others company. 

Crazy Little Thing Called Reality.

It's been a little while since i've written, I'm not very good at this "blog" stuff.
We had a lot going on in the past two months (wow!) Firstly we moved from Brisbane to Mackay
and have settled in to our home fairly quickly. We live on a golf resort about an hour north of mackay
in a beautiful glass house. I have never lived somewhere so beautiful and so relaxing. The resort has a beautiful pool with a swim up bar that make spiders (Ice-cream and soda!) We got a chance when we first moved in to explore the Lodge that is behind our house. It's a large hotel that was shut down awhile ago and it is unbelievable. It's one of those strange beauties, a beautiful 5 star hotel that has just been forgotten and over grown. A truly incredible sight.

Andrew has settled into work pretty well although the commute gets a bit frustrating at times especially with early morning starts but that will all be better in a few weeks when they get a breakfast manager. They definitely have a very different working environment up here, much more relaxed in comparison to brisbane stores. Hopefully over the next few years we can see the stores improve by leaps and bounds. Andrew works incredibly hard for our little family and is constantly making me fall more and more in love with him (if that's possible!!)

On the baby front our little one is now 31 weeks gestation and doing well. Last tuesday I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia (also known as pregnancy induced hypertension or toxemia) It is where a pregnant woman starts having high blood pressure and protein from the kidneys is spilling into the urine. Although my blood pressure isn't consistently in the pre-eclamptic range of 140/90+ I usually sits around 130/85 and occasionally goes above 140/90. During pre-pregnancy and early pregnancy it was around 90/65 so this is definitely a very different world for my poor heart. I started noticing a big change in how my body was coping about a month ago when I started getting spiraling lights in my eyes and felt generally unwell and out of breathe. A quick pop up to the hospital and on the CTG and bubs was doing okay so they left it for the time being. At my next appointment they decided to do a urinalysis and bloods which showed very high levels of protein in my urine and other issues with my liver and kidneys and again back on bed rest. This time a little more strict, I need to be on my left side laying down as much as possible and only allowed to get up to go to the bathroom or shower. The strain that pre-eclampsia has on my body means that we will be meeting our little man at some point in 2011. I'm a little bit sad that I won't have that chance to wait for labour to come on, my waters to break, watching my husband panic while packing the car. At the moment they are aiming for 40 weeks so our little man will arrive on 28/12/2011 but first step is getting to 37 weeks with no changes to my blood pressure and protein count and then we can keep moving forward to 40 weeks. Otherwise we could have him as soon as the end of November which is only a month away! Luckily we got everything organised for his arrival as soon as we moved in, so the nursery is set up, his clothes are washed and folded, the change table is all stocked and ready for a little bottom. We have an abundance of penguin toys and little blue jumpsuits and the letters of his name hanging over his cot, all ready for our little man. :)

I am meant to be flying to Brisbane in three weeks to visit family, although at the current moment that doesn't seem like a possibility but we will see! I really miss my family and have yet to meet my niece who is now over a month old!

Although I doubt anyone actually read these it's nice to be able to put what i'm feeling, what we've been doing in writing. It makes me see the bigger picture and realise I have come so far and I can be strong just for a little bit longer.

Our little man at 26/27 Weeks. The most beautiful thing I have ever seen in the world!